>>If egg-eating mammals destroyed the egg-layers, there would'nt be no species
of bird now. The monitor lizards would have destroyed the ostriches, the
Brazilian mustelids would have destroyed the rheas, etc<<
Exactly. Nature develops checks and balances. Egg-eaters can only eat so many
eggs and so many kinds of eggs (because of behavioral and physiological
complications). The only time I've heard of egg-eaters destroying species, was
on the islands where snakes, cats, and rats were introduced by humans. Those
new animals were sudden additions; if they had evolved on the islands, the prey
would have evolved behaviors to get away from their predators.
Dan